Economic Union prelude to greater separation:
ex-PMNew Delhi, May 31
Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar today sounded a note of caution against the formation of a “Southern Economic Union” comprising Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka saying that “such a move, if ignored may jeopardise our hard won independence and national identity”.

Shankaracharya for ban on cow slaughterNew Delhi, May 31A Hindu religious organisation today urged the government to put a ban on the cow slaughter immediately, otherwise, they warned that a nationwide agitation would be launched.

Sinha confers with Jaitley on WTONew Delhi, May 31
External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha met Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Arun Jaitley this evening ahead of his six-day South American tour of Peru and Brazil beginning June 3.

Bollywood
star Raveena Tandon (L) along with Jacky Shroff participates in a run to mark World Anti-Tobacco Day in
Mumbai on Saturday.
— Reuters

Launchpad of Indian fighter pilotsTezpur, May 31
Clean, green and serene, this aptly sums up the first impression of the northeast. But for the IAF’s men in blue this area also stands for a host of challenges be it the hilly terrain or the fickle weather.

An Indian Air Force fighter aircraft lands after an air exercise at Tezpur Air Force base.
— PTI photo

Kelkar asked to look into transfer policyNew Delhi, May 31
Taking serious note of the recent arrest of the Personal Assistant of the former Minister of State for Finance Minister for allegedly facilitating transfers for money, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh is understood to have asked his Adviser, Dr Vijay
Kelkar, to look into the transfer policy in the ministry.

Model-turned-actress
Perizaad Zorabian, who is playing the lead role in Subhash Ghai's new film
'Joggers park,' smiles during the musical album release of the
film in
Mumbai on Friday. — PTI

Shilpa Shetty’s father evades
arrest
Mumbai, May 31
Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty’s father Surender, wanted in an extortion case by the Gujarat police, continued to evade arrest since Friday when his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by a court in
Surat.

Namdeo remanded in police custody
Mumbai, May 31
CISF jawan R. Namdeo, who shot dead his Deputy Commandant and held six colleagues hostages on Saturday night, was remanded in police custody till June 6 by a local court here today.
Namdeo, dressed in a striped T-shirt and jeans, was produced before Additional Metropolitan Magistrate
M.V. Mankar amidst tight police security this afternoon.

Two killed
in blast
Indore, May 31
Two persons were killed and eight injured, two of them seriously, in an explosion on a cart carrying waste material in Mhow Army area here today, a senior police officer said.

New Delhi, May 31
Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar today sounded a note of caution against the formation of a “Southern Economic Union” comprising Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka saying that “such a move, if ignored may jeopardise our hard won independence and national identity”.

In a statement, the former Prime Minister said though the formation of the union was being projected as a bid to harmonise economic and development policies of the four southern states, actually it was an “incipient bid to forge an exclusive economic union among themselves”.

“This would have been laudable if they were independent states and were coming together to forge a larger unity. But this is just the reverse. This seems to be a first step to forge a sense of separateness and will have severe implications for national unity in the future”, Mr Chandra Shekhar said.

“What is truly a matter of concern is the broad support the union seems to have among the full spectrum of political parties in power in these states and at the Centre such as the Congress, the BJP, the TDP and the AIADMK”, he said, adding that “it is bad enough that some states have tried to forge independent relations with multilateral agencies like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank but this attempt to form an exclusive economic union is actually a bid to unionise and is a prelude to demands of greater separation”.

“From economic union to political union may be a logical progression”, Mr Chandra Shekhar pointed out and warned that “such a move, if ignored, may jeopardise our hard won independence and national identity”.

Lashing out at the Vajpayee government, he said the ruling combination by its attitude and behaviour was posing a serious threat to the future of the country.

The main participant, the BJP came to power on the main slogan to build a temple on the site of the demolished Babri mosque as the first step to establish a ‘Ram Raj’ in India based on its notions of Hindutva, he said.

“If the Ram temple at Ayodhya is to be the symbol of triumph of Hindutva, a common civil code, the abrogation of Article 370 and the deportation of Muslim migrants from Bangladesh were the other pillars of its policy”, he pointed out.

The other issue which was the core of the BJP’s propaganda was its promise of strengthening national security. The testing of nuclear weapons and their full deployment was meant to symbolise this commitment to make India strong and powerful.

The reality is that India has never been so exposed to internationally sponsored terrorism and has never paid for it with so much blood as during the BJP’s tenure, the former Prime Minister said.

In just the last five years, we have lost no less than 400 security personnel to the bullets and bombs of terrorists. There has been a visible collapse in the nation’s security system and this truly exposes the enormous failure of the government, he pointed out.

New Delhi, May 31
A Hindu religious organisation today urged the government to put a ban on the cow slaughter immediately, otherwise, they warned that a nationwide agitation would be launched.

The Shankaracharya, Ananth Vibushit, president, Akhil Bharatiya Sarvadaliya Gauraksha Maha Abhiyan Samiti, told newspersons here that the government should immediately ban cow slaughter, as even one day delay would result in the killing of 50,000 cows.

He claimed that religious and political leaders of a large number of Muslim organisations had demanded a ban on the cow slaughter, but a majority of Hindu leaders were creating hurdles in bringing a Bill on the issue.

The Shankaracharya said the members of his organisation would meet here on July 5 to launch a movement against the cow slaughter.

The Shankaracharya of Badrikashram was in the forefront of the 1966 movement against the cow slaughter.

He warned that those opposing ban on cow slaughter would not be allowed to enter Parliament and the community would boycott them socially.

New Delhi, May 31
External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha met Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Arun Jaitley this evening ahead of his six-day South American tour of Peru and Brazil beginning June 3.

Mr Sinha is understood to have discussed with Mr Jaitley issues related to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as the world braces itself for a crucial ministerial round of negotiations scheduled to be held in Cancun (Mexico) in September this year.

While Mr Jaitley is to visit Paraguay in the middle of next month (Paraguay is the Chairman of ministerial round of negotiations on the WTO), Mr Sinha’s talks in Peru and Brazil have a heavy economic agenda.

Mr Sinha’s talks in Peru are scheduled for June 3 and 4, Mr Shashank, Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs in charge of South America, told the media today. He would be meeting the Peruvian President, the Vice-President, the Foreign Minister and senior leaders.

During his June 4-8 stay in Brazil, Mr Sinha would meet the Brazilian President, the Foreign Minister and other senior leaders.

A significant feature of Mr Sinha’s Brazilian leg is his trilateral meeting with the Foreign Ministers of Brazil and South Africa on June 6. Mr Shashank said this was the first time ever when Foreign Ministers from three continents would meet in what he described as “a rainbow coalition”.

Tezpur, May 31
Clean, green and serene, this aptly sums up the first impression of the northeast. But for the IAF’s men in blue this area also stands for a host of challenges be it the hilly terrain or the fickle weather. Nestled in the green environs on the banks of the mighty
Brahmaputra, the Air Force Station Tezpur is the place where heirs to the glorious legacy of IAF’s fighter stream get training.

Since December 1986 the MiG Operational Flying Training Unit
(MOFTU) in Tezpur is the place where all young fighter pilots are imparted the stage IV (F) training on MiG-21 FL aircraft. This largest fighter establishment is rightly called the ‘’launch pad of fighter pilots’’. An average of 7,500 sorties are flown per year by this unit. The unit also has an operational role in air defence and CFSO in Western sector.

The stringent training routine carries on here as the young top guns fly sorties unruffled by the problems plaguing the MiG-21 series of fighters.

The 32 trainees undergoing training at the moment expressed full faith in the MiG fighter that they fly, Flying Officer S.Bokil from Indore said there were no apprehensions about the aircraft while flying as each 25-minute sortie is preceded by meticulous planning and thorough technical checks. The technical staff spends hours to painstakingly check each and every part of the aircraft to keep it in top flying condition. Elaborate briefings and debriefs that make an essential part of the training schedule are exercises to rule out any chance of a mistake.

Air Cmdr P.K
Barbora, AOC, Air Force Station Tezpur, said the aircraft is very safe but as the quantum of flying done on this is more thus it seems that the number of accidents is more.’’ This is the oldest aircraft being flown by the youngest pilots.

‘’It is a delight to fly this machine’’, he said recalling his days of flying as a young
pilot. Though there has been no accident involving MiGs at this base over the past one year, the main cause for fighter aircraft accidents were human error, technical defect, bird hit, and other causes. A majority of accidents (38 pc) are due to human error followed by technical defect (37 pc). The human error accidents can be due to error of skill, judgement, poor airmanship, non-compliance of instruction, lack of situational awareness, etc,’’ he said.

Media bashing that follows each time an unfortunate accident occurs may leave an impression that there are some leniencies on our part but that is not the case at all, said an officer of the unit. The former air chief
A.Y. Tipnis had covered every air force base in the country in a one seater MiG 21 after he became chief, as well as his farewell ‘‘to prove it is not a flying coffin or any coffin’’, he added.

Group Captain Chetan Bali, Commanding Officer,
MOFTU, while telling a media team that visited the station about training on MiGs said ‘’this is one of the best trainers. Its design is suitable for training and even if AJTs come training on this aircraft will continue’’. He said the jump in training from Kirans and Ishkaras is not a quantum jump. ‘’MiGs are high performance jets but when one actually compares these with Kirans and Ishkaras that are flown during the initial phase of training then the difference is not
much. Thus the impression that these young pilots are suddenly put on to a higher version is not accurate’’.

He also said there was no direct relationship between lack of an Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) and aircraft accidents. Though the induction of AJT would ensure smooth transition of trainee pilots to the frontline fighter squadrons equipped with high technology aircraft yet the MiGs will continue to play a role as trainers, said another officer.

Talking about other upgrades he said though sophisticated simulators would be welcome, nothing can substitute the real flying experience.

New Delhi, May 31
Taking serious note of the recent arrest of the Personal Assistant of the former Minister of State for Finance Minister for allegedly facilitating transfers for money, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh is understood to have asked his Adviser, Dr Vijay Kelkar, to look into the transfer policy in the ministry.

The Union Finance Minister has asked Dr Kelkar to study the transfer policies prevalent at present in various departments and suggest ways for the better monitoring of the postings, sources in the Finance Ministry said here today.

Mr Jaswant Singh had kept in abeyance the transfer of 54 income tax officials of the ranks of Deputy and Assistant Commissioners.

Even before the Perumal Swamy episode, the Finance Ministry had undertaken steps to systematise, rationalise and make the process of transfers of the Indian Revenue Service transparent.

New Delhi, May 31
Padmesh Kaur, a cousin of Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who was killed in Shimla yesterday, was cremated at the Lodhi Road crematorium here.

Capt Amarinder Singh rushed from Srinagar to be present at the cremation. The Chief Minister, who was in Srinagar to take part in the Congress Chief Ministers meeting, did not attend the last session. He drove straight to the crematorium from the airport.

Mr Randhir Singh, secretary-general Indian Olympic Association, who is brother of Padmesh Kaur, rushed to the capital from London.

Besides family members and friends, several Punjab Government officials and Congress leaders from Delhi were present at the funeral which took place at 4 pm.

The body of Padmesh Kaur was brought to the capital from Shimla yesterday night.

Mumbai, May 31
Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty’s father Surender, wanted in an extortion case by the Gujarat police, continued to evade arrest since Friday when his anticipatory bail plea was rejected by a court in Surat.

Mr Shetty has been accused of asking some underworld elements to issue threats to Surat-based ‘Praful Sarees’ chief Pankaj Agarwal to recover, what he claimed were, dues of about Rs 80 lakh from a modelling assignment involving his daughter.

Mr Shetty had allegedly took help from Malaysia-based Fazal-ur-Rehman gang members to threaten the businessman.

As soon as Surender’s bail application was rejected by the court, a team of the Surat police left for Mumbai. The team arrived here last night, but could not trace him.

The team visited Mr Shetty’s residence last night and was camping here. However, the team had yet not sought help of the Mumbai police to arrest him. UNI

Mumbai, May 31
CISF jawan R. Namdeo, who shot dead his Deputy Commandant and held six colleagues hostages on Saturday night, was remanded in police custody till June 6 by a local court here today. Namdeo, dressed in a striped T-shirt and jeans, was produced before Additional Metropolitan Magistrate M.V. Mankar amidst tight police security this afternoon.

The police had sought Namdeo’s custody to interrogate him for illegal confinement of his colleagues. Namdeo had shot dead his senior A. Karanjkar and held six of his colleagues in captivity in the security hold area of Sahar Terminal in Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.
PTI

Indore, May 31
Two persons were killed and eight injured, two of them seriously, in an explosion on a cart carrying waste material in Mhow Army area here today, a senior police officer said.

According to the SP, Indore, a scrap dealer, who purchased waste material from the disposal section of the cantonment area was taking it away in a cart when the blast took place. The blast might have been caused by a live bomb or some explosive material, he said.
PTI

NATIONAL BRIEFS

A vendor distributes water
among the thirsty from his traditional leather pouch outside
Jama Masjid in Old Delhi on Saturday, as the mercury soared
above 40 degree Celsius. — PTI

4 TDP MEN KILLED IN BOMB ATTACK
HYDERABAD: Four ruling Telugu Desam Party activists were killed in a bomb attack allegedly carried out by Congress rivals at Garsanpally in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh on Saturday morning. The police said a simmering feud between activists of the two parties led to the attack against the TDP’s B. Mallikarjuna and others.
UNI